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Jack Trovato (left) with the 5,500 signatures with Kelly Greene (far right)
Photo by Chung Chow
End farmland speculation, limit house size, group says
Published 12:35 PST, Thu March 1, 2018
Last Updated: 2:12 PDT, Wed May 12, 2021
A 5,500-signature petition was presented to
Richmond Council Monday by members of the Richmond Citizens Association who
held a rally to support Richmond farmland.
Kelly Greene, who was joined by Judie
Schneider and Jack Trovato, told The Richmond Sentinel that farmland
speculation needs to removed from the equation to address the issue of mega
mansions being built on valuable farmland. And to do that, house sizes need to
be reduced so speculation becomes much less attractive.
Under the current rules, farmland speculation
will continue, she says, as long as buyers are able to build an estate that’s a
stone’s throw away from Vancouver International Airport and a just a short
drive to Downtown Vancouver.
“As long as they can build an ultra-luxury
estate in a great urban centre…they’re going to go for that,” Green said.
While provincial rules limit house size on
the Agricultural Land Reserve to roughly 5,400 square feet, the rules in Richmond
permit a home that’s twice as large.
“Speculators want to build as big as
possible. Why build on a city lot, when you can build almost 11,000 square feet
on farmland,” Schneider said.
Trovato said real farmers can’t afford to buy
land to farm or even land to lease.
“And if they can find a lease, it’s tenuous,
so farmers can’t make the long-term improvements they need,” he said.
The mega mansions that have recently been
built on local farmland have attracted “illegal and grey-area activities,” the
association said in a press release. That includes booze cans, gambling dens,
prostitution, violence, illegal hotels, birthing hotels and money laundering.
“Residents know these aren’t farmhouses.
These are estates for speculators and the ultra-rich. People are fed up with
these people destroying farmland and getting tax breaks at the same time,”
Greene said.
ALR farmland isn’t subject to the 20 per cent
foreign homebuyers tax. Since the introduction of that tax in 2016, local
farmland prices have increased 300 per cent, the group said.
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